I leaned from Jane Hart’s blog, Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day, about the Tell-a-Friend widget, which is described as a “word-of-mouth marketing tool.” The widget conveniently allows a site visitor the ability to share content via the visitor’s email account, instant messenger account, social networking site, or blog without navigating the user away from the webpage s/he wants to share.

I’ve added it to my WordPress.com blog, and thus far I’m relatively happy with how easy it is to configure, install, and use.  Unfortunately, there are some WordPress.com limitations since WordPress.com does not allow users to add javascript (only HTML) to a template.  So, I don’t get the cute little pop-up, floating box; a new window opens up for the user to share the info via their account of choice.

One of the elements I look forward to investigating further is the easy-to-read usage statistics component, which lets me know what channels (e.g., IM, email, blog or social network) are used and how often.

Oh, and I almost forgot — this customizable widget is free to boot.